Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Fri Jul 28, 2017 3:04 am

Pure coir fiber has no nutrients. You have to mix in some fertilizer for your plants. I use the Epsoma brand because I got a bunch on super cheap clearance last year. Good stuff too, IMO. This year I have had flowers and fruit on several of my potted citrus that hadn't bloomed in years despite repotting and top dressing with fresh soil.

Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Fri Jul 28, 2017 3:48 am

Butterfly lady is right. Plants would die in pure coco coir, because it has no nutrients. You could treat it like you are doing hydroponics and just provide all the nutrients yourself via constant fertilizing with synthetic fertilizers. But then your plants are totally dependent on you and you might as well not use the coco coir and just do hydro...

A traditional potting mix is one third peat moss or coco coir, one third compost, and one third some mineral ingredient like vermiculite, perlite, fine gravel, etc. The mineral is because if you just used peat and compost it would be an extremely thirsty, water-holding mix that would never dry out and your plants would still die.

Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:39 am

By compost you mean the process waste collected in the worm bin or just any decaying matters? Is this recipe for SWC. I'd seen on another forum a suggestion for 10:1:1 coir; compost worm casting. wondering about the big discrepancy.

Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

You have to be clear and upfront that you are talking about SWC because the way the growing medium is used is different from regular container growing and also different from Hydroponics.

In SWC (self watering container) and SIP (sub-irrigated planter) wicking action of the the growing medium or other element like braided rope or even Strips of T-shirt is used to constantly keep the growing medium moist. The medium needs to be able to maintain the knitted network and contact that maintains the wicking action.

In terms of fertilizer, in SWC/SIP, a good supply of solid fertilizer is pre-buried away from the roots in the container OR water-soluble fertilizer is added to the water in the reservoir. So the blend in the growing medium is generally only lightly fertilized, if at all.

Note that some cocopeat has been reported as heavily impregnated with salt. If not sure then you should probably rinse it well to flush out salts before using for growing plants.

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Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:48 pm

Coco peat is more sustainable, but it is a re purposed man made product. It is a byproduct of the coconut industry. Coconut husks have been used for years as planters for orchids in the tropics because its fibers give the plant roots something to hold on to and it breaks down very slowly.

Coco fiber that is sold commercially is hard to wet, you have to soak it. It expands from its compressed block. Once it is wet it, it is very wet, but when it dries it is really dry. It is very light and as mentioned contains no nutrients. It is good for ebb and flow hydro and aquaponic systems and is a good choice for plants that like to dry out a little between watering. It is harder to use it on plants that like to be evenly moist. It does tend to not be friendly to algae, but weeds will still grow through it. It breaks down very slowly and is very light. If you have a top heavy plant it is likely to fall over if you don't anchor the pot. It does not contain nutrients and so you do have to fertilize. As far as I know, the fibers themselves don't hold on to that much nutrients. We use either water soluble (hydro or miracle grow) or nutracote for fertilizer. I don't know about the salt, but I would not be surprised given the conditions most coconut trees grow in.

Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:41 am

Thanks for the info. I live in the Philippines and while we export coco peat to other countries. Its hard to find retailers here. The one I bought from garden shop yesterday was already very old, was hard to find and no longer usable for SWC. kinda garbage from the coco peat processing plant. So I amended it with rice hull. don't know if it will work but good for now. I have not known of anyone here who grow veggies on SWC. So I thought of pioneering and encouraging people here. There are lots of coconut husk here that is left to rot and I already started the fabrication of shredder. I'm good at it. It would be good to have a retail here. a business opportunity and gardening support in one. My next problem is where to find the fertilizer solution, I ask for it where I bought seeds but sales clerk don't even know water soluble fertilizer. She is offering a complete fertilizer. Are there alternative like compost tea.Is it required to add fertilizer to water aside from the compost that is added to coco peat. I have a number of compost bin and worm castings. I knew of seaweed dumping sites from beach resorts is there anything I can do with it.

Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:55 am

Be careful with seaweed. We got some seaweed that came from an ocean cleanup and they had all kinds of conditions that had to be met to make sure it would not end up in the ocean again. It was added to the compost at the garden but it was dried and not washed. The resulting compost was so saline that it took another year to dilute and leach it out to be usable. If you use seaweed, you will have to rinse the salt out of it first and make sure you don't put to much in your mix.

on the farm we did use coco peat for the beds. It was good for growing root crops like beets, radish, and carrots. It was heavy though and clogged the filters in the ebb and flow system faster than the cinders did.

I don't use compost and manures in pots, except for vermicast and I only use a couple of handfuls in a five gallon bucket. Compost usually either outright keeps the seeds from germinating or turns the seedlings yellow and kills them in a short time.

In the self watering container you can use a granular fertilizer. 3 cups organic fertilizer or 2 cups synthetic.

Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Re: cocopeat for poting mix what to add

Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:19 am

A SWC or SIP is a self contained system. The fertilizer stays more or less in the bin unless your reservoir overflows a lot. The processed material from the worm bin is vermicast. It is a type of compost but it is usually rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. I can be mixed in with the soil of your SIP, but usually no more than 20% by volume is recommended for any compost. Organic fertilizer comes in liquid form like fish emulsion or granular form like bone meal, blood meal, or fish meal. The granular fertilizer would be added in a strip on one side of the SIP and it would not be mixed with water. Fish emulsion on the other hand would be mixed 1 tablespoon (15 ml) to 4 liters of water.